I am finishing a piece which employs scholarly footnoting as well as the embedded titles of books, titles of magazines, magazine articles and there is the matter of the Buddhist Canon which has SUTTAS embedded in Suttas embedded in suttas embedded in suttas ! Just HOW do you render them manuscript distinguishable?

Can you refer me to a pdf, web page, or opinion on formatting of manuscripts with citations of Buddhist suttas and sutras?

So far my impression is:

I write :

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the Samyutta Nikāya (LVI.11), is the first teaching of the Buddhas as reported in the Sutta Nikāyas. See the article The Onion Skin Sutta, by Desad, Mark Key, 1999, Quack Press, Paris.

To get:

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the Samyutta Nikāya (LVI.11), is the first teaching of the Buddhas as reported in the Sutta Nikāyas. See the article The Onion Skin Sutta, by Desad, Mark Key, 1999, Quack Press, Paris.

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the Samyutta Nikāya (LVI.11), is the first teaching of the Buddhas as reported in the Sutta Nikāyas. See the article The Onion Skin Sutta, by Desad, Mark Key, 1999, Quack Press, Paris.

To get:

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the Samyutta Nikāya (LVI.11), is the first teaching of the Buddhas as reported in the Sutta Nikāyas. See the article The Onion Skin Sutta, by Desad, Mark Key, 1999, Quack Press, Paris.

The relevant portion from the style guide for my M.A. Dissertation read:

References to Pali texts are usually by volume and page number, e.g. A.II.63, but you will sometimes find references given by section and Sutta number, or just Sutta number (for the Dîgha and Majjhima Nikâyas). Try to determine the method used in these references when you get them from other people. Try to use a consistent method yourself. Example: D.I.202, as in Walshe, 1987: 169. As additional information to this, note that the Sa.myutta Nikâya now also has a translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi, published by Wisdom: Connected Discourses of the Buddha. An example: S.IV.194-95 (i.e. Sa.myutta Nikâya vol.IV. pp.194-95 of the Pali Text Society edition of the text in Pali), which gives a simile of a border city with six gates and a 'Lord of the city' at its centre. The PTS translation is Kindred Sayings IV by F.L.Woodward. The translation of the passage is on pp.126-7. At the top of p.126 is the approximate Pali page number: TEXT iv.193. In the Bodhi translation, the passage is translated on pp.1252-3. He gives the volume of the Pali text in the top left hand corner, and the pages number of the Pali text in [ ] brackets within the translation. However, note also that at the start of the Sutta, on p.1251, he gives '245 (8)'. This means the Sutta is no. 245 of the sa.myutta it is in (there are 56 of these in the Sa.myutta Nikâya), and no.8 of the sub-section of this s.amyutta. In giving references for a Pali text, it is best to refer to the PTS volume and page number for the Pali edition- then anyone can trace the reference in any translation. However, if quoting a translation, it is best to give a reference for this, so I would cite the above passage as: (S.IV.194-5; Bodhi, 2000: 1252-3). If you eg quote my translation, you could give it as: (S.IV.194-5, from Harvey 1995: 116).